Senators Coons, Hickenlooper, Graham, Young introduce bipartisan bill to advance domestic processing of critical materials

WASHINGTON -U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.) introduced the bipartisan Critical Materials Future Act to establish a pilot program for the U.S. Department of Energy to financially support domestic critical mineral processing projects.

"I've been hearing for years from national security and private-sector leaders about the need for more capacity to process and recycle critical minerals here at home," said Senator Coons. "The Biden-Harris administration and the newly formed Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains is already implementing ambitious programs to strengthen our energy security, and this additional funding and new authorities will support more of this urgent work."

"China is rivaling American dominance by controlling the critical minerals market," said Senator Hickenlooper. "Boosting our domestic processing is how we'll maintain American leadership in the world."

"China maintains dominant control over critical mineral processing, which poses significant risks to our national security," said Senator Graham. "It's important for us to work with our allies to build better and more resilient processing capabilities."

"Our reliance on global supply chains for critical materials poses a significant national security threat, especially as the Chinese Communist Party continues to manipulate this market," said Senator Young. "Our bill will take innovative steps to identify opportunities for American leadership and investment in critical material projects, strengthening domestic supply chains and boosting our economic and global competitiveness."

Critical minerals are used in many technologies, including smartphones, electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and more. The U.S. critical minerals list contains 50 minerals - including graphite, nickel, and cobalt - that are essential to our economy, infrastructure, and military capability.

China currently controls 90% of the global processing capacity for rare earth elements and over 80% of the processing for other critical minerals like cobalt, gallium, and graphite. Experts have become increasingly concerned about U.S. dependence on China for critical materials, arguing it poses a significant risk to national security. In August 2023, China announced export controls on gallium and germanium, critical minerals used in semiconductor manufacturing. In October 2023, China introduced export license requirements for graphite, essential for battery anodes. And in June 2023, a cobalt mine in Idaho was forced to shutter its operations before it opened and lay off hundreds of workers as China flooded the market with cheap cobalt.

Specifically, the Critical Materials Future Act grants the Secretary of Energy the authority and funding to deploy innovative financial mechanisms, such as contracts for differences and advanced market commitments, to support critical material processing projects in the United States. The bill also requires the Secretary of Energy to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of these financial tools on market dynamics and processing projects within the critical materials sector and provide recommendations for expanding their use to strengthen America's processing capabilities.

The Critical Materials Future Act is supported by BPC Action, American Critical Minerals Association, Colorado Schools of Mines, and Employ America. For their statements of support, click here.

Senator Coons recently joined a group of his Senate colleagues to introduce the bipartisan Global Strategy for Securing Critical Minerals Act, which works to ensure that the United States, its allies, and global partners can count on a diverse and secure end-to-end supply of critical minerals.

The full text of thebillis available here.

A one-pager of the bill is available here.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.